From the perilous battlefields of the fourth-grade playground, a young hero will rise, destined to be South Park’s savior. From the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, comes an epic quest to become… cool. Introducing South Park™: The Stick of Truth™. For a thousand years, the battle has been waged.

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About This Game

From the perilous battlefields of the fourth-grade playground, a young hero will rise, destined to be South Park’s savior. From the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, comes an epic quest to become… cool. Introducing South Park™: The Stick of Truth™.

For a thousand years, the battle has been waged. The sole reason humans and elves are locked in a neverending war: The Stick of Truth. But the tides of war are soon to change as word of a new kid spreads throughout the land, his coming fortold by the stars. As the moving vans of prophecy drive away, your adventure begins.

Arm yourself with weapons of legend to defeat underpants gnomes, hippies and other forces of evil. Discover the lost Stick of Truth and earn your place at the side of Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny as their new friend. Succeed, and you shall be South Park’s savior, cementing your social status in South Park Elementary. Fail, and you will forever be known… as a loser.

Key Features

The Definitive South Park ExperienceWritten and voiced by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, The Stick of Truth brings their unique brand of humor to video gaming.

An Epic Quest To Become... CoolEarn your place alongside Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny, and join them in a hysterical adventure to save South Park.

Friends With BenefitsRecruit classic South Park characters to your cause.

Intense CombatArm yourself to the teeth with an arsenal of magical weapons and mystical armor.

South Park CustomizationInsert yourself into South Park with something like a billion character, clothing, and weapon combinations.

Fantastic game. The whole way through, the experience feels like watching a really good South Park episode or South Park movie, and the game is a *really* solid RPG, to boot.

But the game isn't without its flaws. I want to spend a few paragraphs on some criticisms of the game, and then we'll talk about what makes the game awesome.

The game feels heavily "consolized." Loading screens are far more frequent than they should be and the controls often don't make much sense. Throughout the game your character will be taught "magic spells" from various NPCs. Each time you learn a spell, you are taught a series of controls to use that spell. However, these spells can be used both in and out of combat, and in both situations the controls are different from one another—and in neither situation is the spell invoked the same way the game inititally taught you!

Your out-of-combat utilities (like firing a ranged weapon at something in the environment or sending a buddy to perform a task) are equally awkward to select and use.

Now, here I should note that I played with a controller attached to a PC. I started the game with a keyboard/mouse but changed very, very early on to give my normal gaming posture a rest (I play games a lot with the keyboard/mouse), and also because South Park: The Stick of Truth seemed to be tailored more toward a controller. Perhaps the controls are better with a keyboard/mouse, but using a controller felt awkward in many parts of the game. But not in combat. In combat the controls felt great. More on that later, though.

On top of that, the game's humor can be off-putting in some parts. This isn't a real criticism so much as it is a warning—it IS South Park, after all! The show has a reputation of making comedy material out of even the most sensitive of topics, and this game also doesn't hold back. I like to think of myself as a fairly easy-going guy and I try not to take many things too seriously, but there were parts in this game that I felt myself somewhat rushing through or avoiding just to get away from an uncomfortable topic.

There's a lot of back-and-forth running around the map in this game, and loading screens are absolutely everywhere. The loading screens are a real slowdown.

So let's see. The loading screens, the really iffy controls in much of the game, and the warning about how the game remains very South Park in its humor are all the things I wanted to make sure to mention. So, now we can talk about the stuff that makes this game a fantastic one!

While moving on the map and navigating menus is often awkward with the game's controls, combat is something the game gets very, very right. As I mentioned earlier, this game is a very solid RPG, and The Stick of Truth's turn-based combat is airtight. This isn't your typical "select an ability and watch what happens" kind of turn-based combat. Here, you'll select an ability, and then you'll influence the outcome of the ability with some simple, but fun controls.

For example, Butters the Paladin has a "Hammer of Justice" ability. To use it, you select it and then choose a target. The game then has you rotate the left control stick in circles to make Butters spin (think Olympic discus tossing), and at just the right instant, press the A button. Succeed, and you'll deal bonus damage to the enemy! If you mess up, Butters will still deal damage, but not as much. Again, this is coming from the perspective of using a gamepad to control the game; I'm sure this is different for a mouse/keyboard, but the principle is the same.

Combat is filled with awesome stuff like this. When you are attacked, most of the time you are given the chance to block some of the enemy's damage by pressing A at just the right time. Some enemy attacks strike multiple times, requiring multiple well-timed blocks! Different enemy attacks have different timings as well, so you'll always need to be on your guard.

These combat mechanics make even turn-based combat a very active affair. The action is fast and challenging, so you'll need to be spot on with your controls. Thankfully, controls in combat are responsive and intuitive, and anytime there's some ambiguity about what to do in battle, there are useful tooltips and pop-ups to remind you of how to use an ability.

While combat is great fun, the game also very often presents you with multiple ways of dealing with foes. Sometimes you can distract them and sneak by. Other times you can use the environment to defeat your foes without having to confront them. Keen awareness of your surroundings and appropriate use of your abilities out of combat can speed up your progress and yield satisfying results.

It should be noted that if you sneak by enemies, you probably won't get experience for dealing with them. But in the cases where you can use the environment to defeat them, you'll be awarded experience as if you had battled them!

There are many quests to accomplish throughout the game, and a few side quests can be completed as you progress. As far as questing is concerned, it's your typical RPG fare—pick up a quest, complete the objectives, turn the quest in. The game does nothing to revolutionize questing, but it handles questing very well.

The story-based quests, however, are always greatly satisfying to accomplish because you are awarded not only with experience and often loot/money, but also with story exposition done in only the way South Park can. It really does feel like you're earning a little piece of a South Park episode or South Park movie when you complete a story quest.

The writing in the game is spot on. You'll get to watch the South Park characters you're so familiar with do the things they do, in the way they do them, while interacting with one another and with your character. I found the story largely fun and interesting.

I was often quite pleased with the developers' efforts to include as many South Park characters as they could in the game. This could not have been an easy task to accomplish, but the game is solid through-and-through with the show's characters, and because the show has been running so long, these characters bring with them their histories, backdrops, and references that the South Park fan should thoroughly enjoy.

Character customization is very in-depth for a game with such a simplistic visual style. You'll begin the game by choosing a class, and then customizing your looks. As the game progresses, you will find, like, a bajillion different ways to customize your charcter's costume ("gear"), hair, facial features, makeup, and accessories. You'll even find "strap-ons" (for weapons) and "patches" (for armor) that let you add significant bonuses to your gear, letting you really specialize or round out your character and playstyle.

I did make a warning above about the game's humor, but for South Park fans, that (most of the time) means you're in for more of what you enjoy about the show. There were plenty of times I found myself actually laughing out loud at the characters' antics; or at the writing; or at the timing of a joke; or just at South Park being South Park. It's a funny game.

There is also a difficulty slider bar. Early in the game I cranked the difficulty to max and didn't look back, and for me, it was quite rewarding. The window of opportunity to block enemy attacks seemed drastically smaller, necessitating more precise timing, and enemies often didn't go down without a fight. I had to stay on top of my gear choices and customize appropriately. Which buddy to bring into battle with me was also a serious consideration, and more than once I had to stock up on potions.

Overall, it's just a really solid RPG, and I'd strongly recommend it to any South Park fan. I could go on about it, but I feel I've covered most of the relevant aspects of the game, and apparently Steam has a character limit for reviews. :)

South™ Park™: The™ Stick™ of™ Truth™ (tm.)™ is one of the best licensed-property games I have ever played, though it's not without its faults.

Let's start with the good stuff. For fans of the show, it's hard to imagine a better use of the license. The designers didn't play it safe and crap out a generic game just to cash in. They took a great hook that was already built into the show (the kids of South Park™ live role-playing RPG-style) and ran with it. This is not a hard-core 100+ hour type of RPG, nor should it have been. Instead, it employs a more simplified style that requires timed button presses for attacks and defense. As a reference point, the gameplay is very similar to the "Mario & Luigi"™ RPGs. This is not only a very good thing, but it also perfectly serves the source material. So while the "RPG" aspects of the game are not particularly hardcore, there is just enough depth to keep it (mostly) interesting throughout. What really take the game to a higher level are the production values. The game itself looks and sounds exactly like the newer HD episodes of the series. Just about every character you could possibly care about makes an appearance, and they're all voiced and written exactly as you would expect. Absolutely no corners were cut in this department - the game really makes you feel as if you are in South Park™, interacting with its characters. The story is also exactly what you would expect out of South Park™. Although the basic premise is very simple - the boys fighting over an ordinary stick™ - the story ultimately progresses in ways you could never have imagined (or perhaps you can, if you've watched enough of the series over the years). The dialogue and voice acting are excellent, and there are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments from beginning to end. There are also tons of obscure references and cameos throughout, seemingly for no other purpose than to make the most hard-core fans chuckle. The whole game really is just a huge South Park™ love fest. In terms of difficulty, the default setting is fine, if a bit on the easy side. If you want more (or less) of a challenge, you can change the difficulty at any point, which is a great feature that should allow anyone to complete it if they put in the time.

Unfortunately, along with all of the things that make the game good, there are also a few low points. Several sections involve slightly complicated "quick time events" (not exactly in the traditional sense, but used here for lack of a better term). Setting aside the fact that these sections seem randomly out of place in an otherwise good game, the real issue is that they just aren't implemented well. The tutorials for each action are executed poorly, which can be frustrating if you don't pick up on what the game is asking you to do, exactly. Another low point comes towards the latter portion of the game, which involves a series of "fetch-quests". While I am sure the intent of this section was to lampoon this tired video game trope, they succeeded a little too much, as it started to get fairly tedious. It also didn't help that at this point in the game, I had already maxed out my character's level, so there was really nothing else to strive for, in an "RPG" sense. It would have been nice if there was no level cap, with enemies scaled to your strength (or something along those lines). Lastly, and this is just a pet peeve of mine, but apparently there are several collectibles that can be missed if you don't get them the first time through - just a warning to those who enjoy collecting things or 100%-ing games.

Overall, my annoyances with the game are fairly minor in comparison to all of the things I enjoyed. If you are a huge South Park™ fan, I think this is a no-brainer. The amount of care that went into making it is readily apparent, and worthy of your money (at least, now that it's only $40 - the original $60 price point was way too much). In terms of length, it's hard for me to estimate, but I would say it will probably take you anywhere from 11-18 hours, depending on how deliberate/OCD you are. It's really hard for me to imagine a South Park™ game ever being done better than this. Needless to say, non-fans should stay away. But for anyone else (assuming you can get into the simple RPG gameplay), it's definitely worth checking out at some point.

Stick of Truth is just one huge love letter to South Park, filled to the brim with references to things from throughout the show's run. The gameplay is like Paper Mario and while its not really challenging most of the time its still quite fun. Obsidian really outdid themselves and anybody who's ever liked South Park should play it because its an amusing ride.

Take the role of the New Kid and save South Park from its near destruction!If you like South Park or if you simply want to relax and play a simple but effective game, do not hesitate.Is it worth the price? Maybe not, get it cheaper if you can. But what I can say, is that this is a must-play.

This game should be played for the South Park mood, feel and humor obviously, and not for its RPG side, which is a parody anyway.

+ Side-quests are both extremely fun, and very practical+ Canada is absolutely hilarious+ Nearly everything that happened in the show is referenced somewhere+ RPG elements work seamlessly with the rest of the game+ Loot is everywhere, and even 'junk' items are clever throwbacks to the show+ You can explore South Park in its entirety; everything seems recreated down to the tiniest detail+ Fast-travel does well to break up the monotony of walking+ Feels like playing an entire, interactive season of the show+ Partially destructible environments+ Humor is funny like only South Park can be funny+ Dye and upgrade systems lend themselves well to the RPG-style gameplay+ Overworld puzzles, using various abilities, are actually very fun; they can also be very rewarding+ Crisp, clean, functional UI

- Hard to loot overlapping characters and be sure that you got everything- 'Magic' (farting) demonstrations can be intensely irritating if you screw up, in that you have to watch (often long) demonstrations again, and again, and you cannot skip it- Frequent loading screens (not long, just very prevalent)

Great game built on some smart ideas. So you play as a bunch of kids, who play a live-action RPG, which becomes a cRPG in your hands. But as the kids' play turns out not to be just a game, your game turns into cRPG and gaming parody, posing reflexions (among tons of fun) on how "being a kid" relates to games and play. Brilliant.

Also, I got interested in South Park thanks to this game. Didn't even know the names of the boys before playing it.

I want to get that clear because negitive reviews of this game all say "i dont know what is going on?" or "this game is so inapporpiate?" or even "who are these characters, there is back story to them?" I am not kidding i have seen that last one multiple times.

If you are not a fan of South Park the TV show, do not and i repeate DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!!! You will have no idea why this game was made and who the characters are and what the items are that you find along the way. I have seen almost every South Park episode made, which is why i love this game so much. The comedy and lines are exactly the same as what would be said in the show, Cartman is still just as big of an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ as always, and Kyle is still the smart ♥♥♥ know it all. This game did a lot of things right, but the biggest was the setting. They made the setting exactlyyyyy like what it would be if it were a real episode.

The next thing done right is the combat. It is just fun as hell, you dont get sick of it at any point and by the end of the game you are a baddass ♥♥♥♥ing everyone up. For some that may not seem like fun, butto me it is beacuse to me the learnign curve at the beginning of the game makes you wish you were a bad ♥♥♥.\

Next the story, to me the story is a lot of fun. Not perfecty, but absolutely enjoyable every moment. What i love the most is the games story is like a long episode of South Park itslef. Like everything done is exactly the same as what would be done in an episode.

But this game is not perfect, to me i wish there were more side missions, by level 6 or so i had already beaten every side mission, which was sad. Also i wish the level cap was higher than 15, maybe more around 20 would have been better in my opinion. Last the story is a little on the shorter side. Around 8 hours for most probably, which isnt bad, but i think 15 hours would have made the story perfect.

With that all being said this game is still amazing and well worth the money IF YOU ARE A SOUTH PARK FAN. If you are not then this game is not for you.

You can get a bad use of a licence with a bad game (Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse) a good use of a licence with a poor game (Deadpool) and then you can get a great use of a licence with a great game (South Park: Stick of Truth)

It goes without saying that if you are a fan of South Park you will love this game into tiny little Nazi zombie fetus pieces.

I can't remember when a game actually made me laugh out loud on so many occasions. One of the best games of the year!

It’s often said that licensed games usually don’t carry a lot of quality. Unfortunately, we live in an age where many good video games have such huge budgets that developers and publishers aren’t willing to take a risk on a new franchise, instead churning out poorly-made games based on franchises and preying on the fans of the franchise.

This is not one of those cases. Though it had a somewhat tumultuous development cycle, the end product is a fantastic representation of everything that’s great about the South Park series. If you’re a fan of the series, or at least its style of humour, this is a no-brainer. For others that have never been impressed with the juvenile and tasteless jokes ubiquitous throughout the South Park universe, I’d recommend that you avoid this title. This isn’t because the gameplay can’t hold a candle on its own – It can, and it was a fun romp in its own right. It’s more that the developers spent so much effort on building the perfect South Park game and added as many of their well-renowned politically incorrect humour that it becomes unavoidable if it isn’t your thing.

Storyline

The game begins with you, (“D-bag”) and your parents moving into South Park, Colorado. You’re then tasked with making friends in the new town, which isn't easy given that your protagonist is mysteriously silent throughout the game. Before long, you’ll find yourself involved in a real-life role playing game with the other kids in South Park. There are two factions – The humans, led by Cartman, and the elves, led by Kyle. Both factions fight over a stick – the titular Stick of Truth, which supposedly possesses the power to control the universe. Throughout your journey, you’ll encounter numerous (and often ridiculous) obstacles and hazards and meet a tonne of infamous characters from the South Park franchise and an even greater number of references to events that have occurred in the TV show.

Fans of the series who have seen the South Park episode “The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers” will find the setting very familiar. As in the episode, the characters don costumes representing their class and/or position (including a cross-dressing princess Kenny) and are deeply engrossed in their roles, but they do occasionally have to break out of character in order to satisfy their real-life commitments, which more often than not involves the parents telling them that it’s time for bed.

Gameplay

The game itself resembles other turn-based, quick time event (QTE)-heavy RPGs such as Paper Mario and the dreaded Costume Quest. Battles aren’t random, but rather are usually initiated by walking into an enemy. During each battle, you’re given a party of up to two characters (your main character and a character that you can choose and switch between). Each character has its own unique set of attacks and abilities. For each action that you choose, there’s an associated QTE action that you have to perform perfectly in order to maximise the effect. This often includes pressing a certain button at some point in time, mashing another button, spinning the left control stick or some combination of the above. Unlike in Costume Quest where the timing of these was very lenient and forgiving even if you happened to miss it, The Stick of Truth requires you to be on your toes. The window of opportunity for pressing these buttons is fairly strict, and the consequences of missing button sequence can lead to severe consequences. For example, one of Kenny’s special abilities involves him calling a horde of rats. Once the rats appear, you’re required to rapidly and repeatedly pull your left control stick to the left and right. If you succeed, the rats swarm your enemies for significant amount of damage. Should you fail however, the rats will literally eat Kenny alive. When it’s your opponents turn to attack, you’re once again given a small window to press a button in order to defend their attack, which results in reduced damage or prevention of a negative status effect. Overall, actively pressing buttons at the correct time matters in this game, which adds a level of intensity to every battle. It’s a fantastic combat system that forces the player to be actively involved, rather than continuously mashing a single button and hoping for the best.

Whist outside of battles, your character is freely able to roam around South Park, gathering quests and looking for loot (equipment, potions, cosmetic items or junk to sell), collectables (i.e. Chinpokomon) and even more friends to add to Facebook, which helps to unlock perks which will assist you in battle. Completing side quests usually rewards you with equipment, friends or even “summons” that you can call to battle when things get rough. The Mr. Slave summon ability literally causes him to violently shove an enemy up his butt for impressive, but disturbing results.

The game also gives you access to certain abilities that you can use to solve simple puzzles that are strewn across the game. Whilst some of these puzzles have to be solved in order to progress, many of these merely offer you an easier way to deal with enemies without actually fighting them in battle. If there’s a rock sitting on a ledge above your enemy, you can shoot it with a slingshot and have it drop on your enemies, which avoids the necessity of combat entirely. There are many more examples of manipulating the environment in order to gain an advantage or avoid combat entirely, but I'd hate to spoil the fun of discovering these for yourself. Overall, it’s a very refreshing and unique mechanic that’s highly welcome in a game where things may otherwise get stale.

Presentation

Visually, the game beautifully replicates the aesthetic that the show is famous for. It’s not mindblowing by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s just the way any fan of the show would want it to look.

More importantly, the developers, in conjunction with the creators of South Park, have done a wonderful job replicating the world of South Park. Every building in town can be entered and interacted with. The game is chock-full of characters and/or references to characters or events from the series. The voice-acting is on-point, with the original voice actors of the show providing the voices of the characters. Characters have context-sensitive remarks. If Cartman is in your party and you walk into Kyle’s house, you bet he’ll mutter something about Jews and/or make a derogatory remark regarding Kyle’s mother. Ultimately, the game does a tremendous job at making you feel like you’re a part of the world that is South Park, and fans of the show really couldn’t ask for anything more than that. With that said, if you’re not a fan of the show or think it’s too vulgar, please turn away now. This game pulled no punches in vulgarity, and even as a long-time fan of the show, there are certain segments that I think are a little bit too disturbing or distasteful. Your mileage may vary.

Overall

After numerous delays, I’m happy to say South Park: The Stick of Truth is a tremendous title that successfully replicates both the humour and personality of the show, whilst providing a refined, tightly-controlled and satisfying combat system to boot. Whilst it's a solid game in its own right, your enjoyment of the overall experience will be very heavily influenced by just how much the humour that the show is famous for actually appeals to you. As a result, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone that hates the show, but would recommend it without questin to anyone that is a fan.

I highly recommend this game to everyone that is a fan of South Park or at least enjoys the South Park humour.

Normally I write a whole review about game mechanics etc, but thats really not needed here!This game is an interactive South Park episode where you play the role of the new kid in town. Thats all you need to know, let the rest be a hilarious adventure to you! Don't watch gameplay video's of it and avoid all spoilers, just play it and laugh your bottom off!

This game is really funny even if you haven't seen South park series or completely never heard of it.

You play as a nine years old kid who just moved in small american town called South Park and for some reason you can't speak, so everybody calls you New Kid. Your parents send you outside of house to make new friends and you will find out that kids split up in two factions elves and humans. They fight each other for the Stick of Truth because who holds it controls the universe, for some reason battles have rules, like you can use one potion and one attack per round and when you do, your enemy is on turn. Grand wizard Cartman asks you if you join his army and there the adventure begins.

Prepare for that nobody will be spared, because South Park makes fun of everybody.

***EDIT: CENSORSHIP CAN BE REMOVED, LINK IS IN THE REVIEWS COMMENTS.. I"VE PERSONALLY VERIFIED IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!******

A MUST have for any South Park fan!!! 9.5/10. only negative aspects are censorship & combats too easy majority of the time.

This game is near perfect... 4 years of painstacking effort & detail went into this game to get it to the high quality standard that Trey & Matt are known for and acustom to (South Park creators).

also, the combat system may look lame and i didnt expect much from it when i found out its turn based, but its actually very fun, my only complaint about it is usually its too easy even on the hardest setting.

We've never had so much fun with a video game before. If you like RPGs and/or the TV show –especially the latter– this is a game you cannot miss. This is just the best adaptation from a TV series to a video game ever made.5/5 Because of Good/Awesome Story!